Advantages

Disadvantages

Would always choose to buy this brand

Before I had my daughter, I never knew that one little person could own quite so many pens and pencils. She has pencil cases full of various art supplies, containing pens, gel pens, glitter pens, crayons, pencils etc and I seem to find them 'hidden' in the most extraordinary places when I clean her room. I have been buying Crayola crayons (firstly) then pencils for my daughter since she was very small, and I can honestly say that though they are more expensive than other non-branded pencils, these are extremely high quality and last forever. Sarah has been using the same pencils now for years and they are still going strong.

I bought my daughter a pack of 24 pencils and paid just under £5. I know that's quite expensive for kids' stationery but I am happy to pay the extra as they are superior to others she's used. The leads inside the pencil rarely (if ever) break and Sarah can use quite a lot of force and she grips tight hold of the pencil whenever she is colouring in. They are robust and definitely made to last.

The pack of pencils she has at the moment come in a hue array of lovely bright colours, right across the colour spectrum. There are various shades of reds, blues and greens, including browns. Sarah uses her Crayola pencils almost every day - colouring in seems to be one of her hobbies at the moment and it keeps her entertained for hours on end. I always sharpen the pencils for her when the point has run down and they sharpen perfectly every time, without ever breaking.

These would make a fairly inexpensive stocking filler for Christmas for either sex. Colouring pencils never go out of fashion and have been enjoyed by children for generations. I'd certainly recommend the Crayola variety, however, and though more expensive than other brands, the quality is second to none.

Comments

Advantages

Disadvantages

a great choice of pencil

==Crayola 24 Coloured Pencils==

Jack does love to do a bit of colouring in and drawing even if he does have my limited drawing capabilities at least he tries. I have bought him all sorts of different pencils over his 5 years and these have ranged from the super cheap pencils that our local Poundland sells, colouring pencils from Tesco to the most expensive Crayola pencils.

It has to be said that when it comes to colouring pencils, you really do get what you pay for and after trying all these different makes of pencil I have come to the conclusion that you can really only buy the Crayola pencils to get a long lasting, good coloured pencil. For the price they are the most expensive when buying children colouring pencils and for this pack of 24 pencils which was our most recent purchase from Tesco we paid around £4.50p.

The pencils themselves are all rounded as opposed to the cheaper type of pencils which are more of a hexagon shape. I think both myself and Jack find these rounded Crayola pencils more comfortable to hold and I think with Jack still gripping onto the pencils rather tightly it does make it far more comfortable for him to use these over the hexagon ones. The Crayola pencils are all fully sharpened in the pack and we find that they are easy to sharpen once they have been worn down and the leads are super strong compared to the cheaper pencils which means that they are far harder to break when both colouring and sharpening.

The 24 colours in the pack range right through the spectrum and there are a couple which are different variants of a colour. For example there is a dark green and a light green. 24 colours gives you a really good range and I like the fact that the pencils have the different colours stamped on to the bottom of each corresponding pencil.

The leads in these Crayola pencils seem to be a little thicker than the cheaper pencils you can get which makes for a lot easier use. The pencils can be pressed hard on the paper or used gently to create a lighter shade of the colour. The back of the box does go into a little detail on how to get the most from these pencils and how to work on shading and the like but this is a little lost on Jack even with me trying to explain it all.

Overall I find these Crayola pencils probably the best that you can get for children arts and colouring. They are worth the extra money and apart from loosing them in various places I should think that they last for a good while yet as they are all still pretty long even with a good deal of sharpening. They are comfortable, strong and have bright bold colours which can be used either hard or soft to create different shades. I think they have got to warrant a top score of 5 out of 5 stars and I would highly recommend them to anyone and everyone.

I do hope that this has been of some help/interest to you

Many thanks for taking the time to read.

Comments

Advantages

Disadvantages

Great price, great quality

Art is one of my main interests and hobbies and I will be starting an art based course next year at university. I've always been creative and loved drawing ever since I was little and learnt from an early age that Crayola are one of the best arty brands out there, they are a brand that I grew up using many of their products because they worked the best and always had the best colours.

Now being a student and properly into art I prefer using ridiculously expensive but still really great derwent pencils (about £60 for a tin of 40-50 and they are about £1.20-£1.50 for each pencil!). However I still buy packs of crayola pencils often as they are really good quality for such a cheap price. They are limited in colours but they give the user the basic colours needed and they are easily blended because the leads are soft which a lot of other packs of pencils are not. I remember when I was younger other colouring pencils were often difficult to colour with because the leads were hard which made the colour come out looking plastic and horrible on paper, the colours always seem to be extremely dull when compared with Crayolas bright ones too.

Although the leads are soft, they are not easily broken when dropped which is a great plus for them to be banging about in your bag or for young kids as they won't need to be sharpened every few minutes because they keep braking.

This 12 and 24packs are a great simple starter pack for anyone but if you have kids who are really into drawing I definitely recommend a larger pack that come in a plastic wallet as they allow more creativity and experimental freedom with colours, I had the bigger packs when I was younger and had much more fun with them.

The only bad point I have about this pack is there never seems to be a light blue colour, although you can use the dark blue lightly it still doesn't give the effect wanted. I think Crayola should replace the white pencil with light blue as the white never really gets used much unless you're drawing on black paper.

Overall I recommend Crayola pencils and Crayola in general as they are a very reliable brand that produce strong colours and long lasting products. They are good for all ages, very young because the colours are so bright and even for serious art students as you can find many uses for them but are still great just for colouring.

Comments

Advantages

Disadvantages

Brilliant Pencils

My eldest daughter us four years old and since she was big enough to pick up a pencil she was drawing, she loves all things creative and is forever making pictures for eveyone she knows even our poor neighbours. We had ended up with quite a collection of pencils however some were the cheap kind that would always split when they were sharpened and others there was no longer a full set of so I decidced to start a fresh and binned the lot replacing them with these.

Crayola has been around for years certainly since I was young and i'm nearly 30 so I was confident to buy the Crayola brand knowing that although they are more expensive you get what you pay for and they are worth the money. I bought the set of pencils from Amazon and they cost me about £3 for the packet of 24 which I think is worth the money for a good set, the pencils are supposed to be for ages 23 and up however my younger daughter attempts to draw with them without issue.

The pencils come in a bright yellow box which has always been the colour of Crayola and they can be bought in boxes of 12, 24 or 36 pencils, the box is sturdy enough to hold the pencils to begin with but after many goes of opening and closing it we had to put the pencils in a pencil case as the box was falling apart.

Inside the box is a wide variety of colours which I think is plenty for any child unless they are about to become a professional artists and worrying about shading and the likes, you get the usual 1 x black, 1 x grey and 1 x white and then there is a wide range of red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, green, brown and purple with a couple of shades of each. The colours are packaged in order when you first open them for example red is next to pink into lilac and then purple so they shade into one another which looks really nice although they obviously don't stay like that.

The pencils are brilliant, they work well and the colours are really strong, the lead inside the pencil is strong too and even though they do get dropped or even in the middle of fights with my two girls they are not broken and they sharpen nice and evenly. My daughter wasn't happy when I got rid of all her pencils however she is more than happy with the replacement and so am I, the pencils have lasted ages and she still isn't even 1/4 of the way down them and she colours alot. The price may be about 4 times what you need to pay for a pack of pencils but it is worth paying the extra and I will buy them again.

Comments

Advantages

Disadvantages

* A Crayola Classic *

** Crayola Colouring Pencils **

The pack of Crayola Colouring Pencils I have is a pack of 24. They come in a yellow, green and orange box with a little window so you can see the pencils inside.

I bought these mainly got my niece as she loves drawing. But I also bought them for myself as I love drawing myself. I don't have much time for it but decided I would do it in my spare time to relax. I did art at college and have always had a soft spot for a fresh bit of paper and newly sharpened pencils. Anyway, as Crayola is one of the best arts and crafts brands around I was hoping for good quality pencils and my niece and I were not disappointed.

The pack of 24 pencils gives you some brilliant shades. Not just your standard red, yellow and blue. Some of the other colours are peach, tan, black and even white. My niece really liked drawing on dark coloured paper using the white pencil and when it was Halloween we cut out some shapes with black paper (spiders etc.) and she used the pencil to makes the eyes and other features.

The pencils are great quality and come pre-sharpened so ready to use straight away. The high quality grained wood means that the pencils sharpen really well without breaking or getting mangled. They only need a couple of twists and the pencil is ready to go. I also find that the lead in the pencil doesn't snap easily and you get a lot of use out of the pencils in general.

These pencils are really smooth and easy to hold. No matter if you are a child or adult they are comfortable in the hand. The strong colours are perfect for colouring in and the fine led is great for drawing. Each pencil has Crayola and the colour written with Gold writing on the pencil. I think this is a nice idea as it makes the pencils look really appealing but if you use your imagination you can help children with their spelling and word association etc.

The pencils in use are what you would expect. Nice and smooth lines with bright colours and durable lead. Very good quality with a huge selection of colours to choose from.

** Price & Availability **

I bought these for £3.12 from Amazon. This works out at 13p per pencil Pretty good value for money considering the quality of the product and that they can be used for months on end until you have sharpened it to death. These pencils can also be bought from other places such as department stores (John Lewis) and supermarkets (Asda). But shop around because the price as usual varies.

The pencils also come in a pack of 12 for £2.64 and a pack of 36 for £4.56 (prices from Amazon).

** Recommendation **

The packaging states that these pencils should be for 3 year olds and over. I imagine they would have a good munch on the pencil but with supervision they would enjoy the easy to hold pencil and have a good scribble.They are good quality pencils, leaving nothing to be desired. Although I have given up on my drawing now my niece still used them at least once a week and enjoys the varieties of colour. She is 5 and has no problems sharpening them herself as the wood is so smooth. She likes to colour in large sections and these pencils are bright enough to show up on recycled or new paper.